The Lion King: A Twisted Tail
by Brasta Septim
Summary: This a reverse situation fanfic; Simba is Sarafina's cub, and has just moved into the Prideland with his mother; then he meets the beautiful young princess, Nala. Be prepared for friendship,and maybe more...
1. Chapter 1

Sarafina ran as fast as she could across the savannah, her young cub behind her. For days she's been setting a fierce pace for herself and her young son, Simba. Days ago, their pride had been attacked by a horde of hyenas, moving in search of food. Sarafina and Simba had been forced to flee while their entire pride was slaughtered; Even her mate, Ukaidi, had died before her eyes.

Sarafina had been running from their home on the western end of the Outlands for four days total, and as the sun rose she could see where she was; the Pridelands. She didn't know what kind of welcome she would get here, but she had to try; her son was exhausted, and she was approaching exhaustion herself. As she headed into the Pridelands, she saw an enormous brown rock jutting into the sky, in stark contrast to the yellowed grass of the landscape; Pride Rock, from which the Pridelands derived their name. She knew what pride resided here; in fact, she had grew up here with the current king, Mufasa, and his brother, Taka. She hoped dearly that Mufasa could take her and her cub in.

Halfway to the rock, Sarafina caught sight of two lionesses, acting as sentries around Pride Rock. Both were very alert, and seemed slightly hostile. One of them approached Sarafina and asked her what she was doing there.

"Refugee, looking for a new home for myself and my cub. Hyenas attacked and slaughtered my pride. My name is Sarafina." One of the lionesses looked at Sarafina hard, as if trying to remember where she'd seen her before; then she gasped, and let out an unusual squeal of delight. "Saffy! It is you!" She said, smiling happily. Sarafina looked at her, confused for a second, then responded just as dramatically as she recognized the lioness, "Sarabi! I thought I'd never see you again!" She laughed, as she approached her old friend; Sarabi and Sarafina had been best friends as cubs and adolescents, before Sarafina had left. Sarabi looked up at Sarafina sympathetically, and said, "Don't worry; i'll make sure my dear mate lets you back in. He can't refuse me."

Sarafina cocked her head, "Mate? You mean..."

"Yes!" Sarabi squealed again, "I'm married to Mufasa!" Sarafina happily congratulated her friend, and Sarabi chuckled, "No need to congratulate me; though I'm guessing you found yourself a mate, too. I suppose this is your son?" He asked, pointing down and little figure of Simba, huddled next to his mother; Simba just looked up at Sarabi, wondering exactly what was going on. A shadow crossed Sarafina face, and she said, "Yes, I have a son; but my mate is dead; he died with the others in the attack." Sarabi looked up at her old friend, compassion written across her face, "I'm so sorry, Saffy." Sarafina shrugged it off, trying to lighten the mood a little bit, "That's in the past; right now I just want to get myself and my cub in a nice, warm cave. But what about you? Any little _bambini_ for the queen?" Sarabi looked even happier than before, and said, delight evident on her face, "I have one chld, a daughter; her name is Nala."


	2. Chapter 2

Sarabi and the other lioness left to inform Mufasa of their arrival, leaving Sarafina and Simba standing out there in the middle of the savannah. As Sarafina just stood waiting, a hopeful smile on her face, she heard Simba's soft voice beside her, "Mommy, who was that? And where are we?" Sarafina nuzzled her young cub, and said, "That was an old friend of mine, Sarabi; and you are in my old home, the Pridelands. This is our new home, if all goes well." Simba looked around at the landscape, "Well, it's certainly much nicer than the Outlands." Sarafina laughed, and said, "Yes, it certainly is."

Right on cue, Sarabi came back by herself. She approached Sarafina, smiling, and said, "Come on; your old friends are happy to see you again." Not needing further prodding, Sarafina followed Sarabi to Pride Rock, Simba trailing her closely. During the short walk to Pride rock, Simba couldn't help but marvel at his suroundings; he was so used to the dry, barren Outlands that this looked like paradise on Earth. His stomach growled, loud enough for Sarabi to hear, and she turned around. She looked up at Saffy worriedly, and said, "Saffy, how long has it been since you and Simba have eaten?"

"Three days straight." A look of horror showed up on Sarabi's face, and she hurried a little bit, "Come on, let's get you up here before you two collapse from hunger and exhaustion; luckily, we brought in some fresh kill tonight, so there's enough for all." Finally, they reached he base of the gigantic monolith, and slowly ascended it until they reached the promontory. Simba was amazed at the view from there; he was about to move closer to the edge, but his mother held him back, "Be patient, my little one; I have to talk to King Mufasa first." At that moment, Sarafina heard a voice from her right say, "Sarafina? It's really you?" She turned around to see her old friend, King Mufasa himself standing by Sarabi. Sarafina nodded her head, "It's me. I'm back with my son; I'm sure 'Rabi already told you what happened to my other pride." Mufasa nodded sympathetically and said, "Of course, you're welcome to be here main den is further down the rock, and the kill is in there." Sarafina turned to head back down the rock, but Mufasa stopped her. "If you're going to be staying here, I want to present to you and your son my daughter, Nala."

From behind Sarabi stepped the most beautiful creature Simba had ever laid eyes on; whether she was a cub, or an angel in cub form, he could not tell. She stepped forward with grace and poise befitting royalty, allowing Simba a better look. She was creamy tan, with deep, deep blue eyes, their irises a pure sapphire ringed with light turquoise, shimmering slightly as if made of moonlight. His mother had told him stories about the former princesses of her pride, how beautiful and noble they were, and how everyone wept when the princess passed away; seeing Nala, he could certainly see why.

When she reached him, he could see she was a bit older than him, maybe by a few months; simba shrank back a little bit, hoping this was not a dream. She looked at him curiously and said, "Who are you?" Simba shook himself to avoid saying something embarrassing, "I-I'm Simba." He said, a little shyly. "My mother is a former member of this pride, and we came back here." When Nala moved closer Simba could smell lavender, and he was awestruck; how could a lioness smell of flowers?

"How old are you?" She asked him directly.

"S-Seven months. And you?" He blurted out. She gave him a quizzical look, "I'm eight-and-a-half months old."

Simba looked up at her, "What is your name again? Nala?" She nodded briskly, then looked over at their mothers to see them chatting. Nala looked back at Simba, "Wheres's your father?"

"Um..." Simba shrank a little. He looked up at Nala, looking suddenly sad, "He's dead, with the rest of my old pride; that's why we had to run. We've been traveling three days to get here."

"Oh." Nala gasped, a look of compassion on her face. "Well... are you hungry?" Simba nodded, and they headed down the rock to the main den. From what Simba could tell, it was a fairly large cave; the rest of the pride, eight lionesses and their mates, and roughly a dozen cubs were lying around a pile of bloody haunches., eating their fill; Simba and Nala proceeded to join in with gusto. Once full, the two staggered back up the rock to rejoin their parents. Before they did, Nala turned to him and said, 'See you around, Simba."

"You too, Nala." Suddenly his life had become _very interesting..._


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Simba awoke to sunlight streaming into the cave. He yawned and stretched before getting groggily to his feet. Simba walked out out of the cave to be blinded by a burst of red and yellow sunlight as it illuminated the Pridelands; It was probably the most overawing scene he had ever viewed in his life.

While he was sitting at the cave entrance, gaping in awe at the manificent panorama of color before him, he heard a voice from behind him, "Simba?" He yelped, startled, then jumped a few feet in the air. He landed back on the cave floor with a groan, to the accompaniment of loud giggling. He turned around to see Nala behind him. "What do you want?" Simba snapped, angry at getting startled so easily. Nala narrowed her eyes at him before sitting back on her haunches in a regal position. "Actually, I was going to ask if you would like to meet the other cubs." She replied. Simba's hostile manner dropped instantly, and his face took on a look of excitement, "Yeah, sure!" he responded enthusiastically. Nala flashed him a smile and said, "Follow me," leading him down Pride Rock the same way he had come up the previous day. She led him across the Savannah to a large watering hole surrounded by acacia trees. A small group of cubs who were playing around the waterhole turned to look at the new arrival, then came forward to see who it was. Before they got there, Nala looked back at Simba, then at the other cubs before saying, "Guys, this is Simba; he just came here yesterday." One of the male cubs walked up to Simba and introduced himself, "Hi, Simba! My name's Brasta." He was about seven months old, with jungle-green eyes and tan fur streaked with brown. He looked at Simba up and down, as if analyzing him, "So, where are you from?"

Simba shuffled around uneasily, "Well... I _was_ from a pride on the other side of the Outlands..." The other cubs gasped, and one of them piped up, "You came here from across the Outlands? How long-"

"Three days." Simba interjected. The cub who had spoken up, a lioness cub by the name of Heri, looked at him with curiosity and said, "Why did you leave and come here?" Simba's face became stony, and he said bluntly, "None of your business."

"Hey! It was just a question!" Heri squeaked, looking slightly taken aback. Simba shook his head and said hastily, "I didn't mean to offend you! I just... don't really want to talk about it right now."

"Oh." She said, then slowly walked away. Nala sighed and turned to Simba, "Look, if you want to make firends here, you can't be so blunt; even if you don't want to talk about what happened, you need to relax a little." Simba smiled a little, a mischevious gleam in his eyes "Well, I guess you're right." He turned to walk away; then, without warning, he turned around and pounced on Nala. To his dismay, he soon found himself flipped over and pinned to the ground by her paws. He was so shocked, he didn't even try to move.

"Pinned ya!" She said smugly, before letting him up and walking away triumphantly, leaving a very surprised Simba behind.


	4. Chapter 4

Nala was walking back to the main group, when Heri stopped her, a sneaky smile on her face. Nala sighed, "Heri, what do you want?" Heri smiled, "Simba's kinda cute, isn't he?" Nala groaned inwardly; Heri had started a routine earlier that year of dating a boy for a couple of months before systematically breaking his heart, then flirting with the next boy she saw, winning his heart and repeating the process. The only word to describe her was "coquettish**"**, a term she had picked up from conversations between her mother and the other lionesses. And she was ridiculously good at stealing the lion cubs hearts; her looks enough were usually enough, but her actions more or less screamed, "I'm a flirt!" Even though Nala had only known Simba for the span of a day, she certainly didn't want Heri to repeat the process again. Nala gave Heri a stern look. "Heri, you're not planning on-"

"No, of course not!" Heri scoffed, trying to look innocent; Nala wasn't fooled, and narrowed her eyes at her. "I mean it!" Heri said, trying to sound sincere, "I won't break this one's heart, I promise." A sneaky look reappeared on her face, and she said, "In fact... I think i might let **you** try your luck with him." Nala's eyes widened in surprise, and she looked back at Simba to see if he had overheard; luckily, he hadn't. Simba was too busy chatting with Strike, Mati, Kuda, Cheshi and Nguvu, the other male cubs, to notice their conversation. She had to admit to herself Simba was a bit cute; the golden fur really made him stand out. Heri saw the look on Nala's face, and looked excited, "So you do think he's cute! In that case, I think i'll leave you two alone..." Before Nala could tell her no, Heri began pushing her towards Simba. Nala tried to stop her, but lost her balance and winded up rolling down a small hill, closing her eyes as she went down. Before she reached the bottom, she felt her head smack into something soft, followed by a loud, "Ow, my nose!"

To Nala's horror, she had rolled straight into Simba, bowling him over like a pin. Nala quickly got to her feet and began stammering, "S-sorry! My friend pushed down the hill, a-and I could control where I was going, and-" Simba impatiently raised a paw to stop her stammering, and said (while clutching his nose), "It's all right, Nala; no harm done!" When Nala looked into his eyes to begin apologizing again, her breath caught in her throat; she couldn't move her eyes from those dazzling amber orbs. An electric feeling ran up and down her spine, and she felt something awake in her stomach and start flying around. Nala just remained standing there, frozen in her trance...


	5. Chapter 5

The two of them just stared at each other, frozen and shifting uneasily before looking away. "Umm... sorry?" squeaked Nala. She mentally whacked herself in the head. _Squeaking? For goodness sake, you're a princess, he's a new cub; so stop acting like a giddy school lioness! _

"It's all right." repeated Simba, casually looking as far away from her as possible. "So... what are the others like? They seemed nice enough, but I don't know them that well."

Nala furrowed her brow in thought, sighing inwardly in relief for a change in conversation. "Errr... let's see, there's Heri..." She didn't want to say anything yet, but she still had the impulse to warn him about her. "She's... friendly to everybody." She decided to leave it at that. "Brasta is... just as friendly to everybody- more so, even." This was partially true; sometimes he was as bad about it as his sister, Heri. He was relentlessly flamboyant and flirted with just about everybody -mostly the boys, but some of the girls- but often he was snarky, bitterly sarcastic, and slightly cold when he wanted to be alone. It really depended on his mood. "Strike, Brasta's best friend, is also friendly- though he tends to be more.. social than Brasta most of the time." Simba just nodded along, holding onto every word. "Mati and Kuda are twins- very mischevious. Stay away from them if you want to avoid trouble." Those twins were troublemakers with a capital T- she knew they probably try and drag him into some dangerous adventures if they had the chance. "And then there's

Cheshi, Nguvu, and their sister, Tama. You'll find out what they're like soon enough." she finished lamely.

Simba looked thoughtful for a moment, than said, "Well, they all sound interesting... speaking of which, there a couple of them are!" Nala turned around to see Brasta and Heri approaching, brilliantly wide grins on their faces. They padded up to Simba, and opened their mouths in unison to speak. "Hello darling," they said, before turning to glare at the other in shock. "Heri, didn't Nala tell you not to-"

"That doesn't mean I can't _introduce_ myself! Honestly, you prating nancy boy, you don't have to try and steal every-"

"Oh, _I_ steal, Miss "New-toy-every-week?"

"At least I'm a girl, you annoying po-"

"Shut your gob, you arrogant little-"

"Ahem!" The two of them quickly stopped their bickering to see a very confused Simba and a glaring Nala. "Now that you two have decided to quit your rubbish-flinging contest, I do believe you were going to introduce yourselves?"

"Oh, right." said Brasta , grinning sheepishly at Nala, before moving himself in front of Heri, who was glaring daggers at her brother's back. "As you probably know already, the name's Brasta. This..." He paused for a moment as he looked back at his sister, "lovely lass is my mother's _other_ cub, Heri."

"Who..." she said, pushing her brother out of the way and fluttering her eyelashes up at Simba, "is very pleased to meet you- though I am truly sorry about the reason you ended up here." she said, simpering a little. Simba didn't know to be pleased or taken aback- one minute he's talking to Nala, next minute these... two show up. Heri was pretty, he supposed- but too forward. Brasta... he really didn't know what to make of him. Strange? Odd? Queer? Possibly mental? Point is, they had rudely interrupted his conversation with Nala.

"Errr... thank you. Now, if you don't mind, I was sort of in the middle of a conversation." The faces of the two of them dropped, though Brasta smiled briefly at the shocked look on his sister's face.

"Oh... I'll just... okay then..." Heri turned around and marched off, muttering to herself. Brasta just looked on with an amused smile, then glanced briefly at Brasta.

"Well, I'll be seeing you around, dear. Ta ta!" he said before traipsing merrily after his sister's retreating form.

**AU: Good? Bad? Hate the Characters? Review! In detail for the love of the Theotokos!**


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